Marriage is viewed by Christians as a Sacred vow, one in which, before God, couples commit their lives to each other for better or worse. In Marriage Counseling: A Christian Approach to Counseling Couples, Everett L. Worthington, Jr. (1989), a Christian pastoral counselor, maintains that quite often the conditions in the marriage relationship are ôworseö than ôbetter.ö The statistics on divorce in the United States provide ample evidence of WorthingtonÆs claim. Since the 1980s, fifty percent or one out of every two marriages in the U.S. ended in divorce, while sixty-five percent of all second or subsequent marriages end in divorce, (Worthington, 1989, p. 17).
It is not so much the institution of marriage that is suffering from crisis in American society as much as the ôpermanenceö of marriages between individuals, (Worthington, 1989, p. 17). For Christian couples who view Scripture as authoritative, any alternative to divorce is often sought before permitting marital breakup. Despite devout beliefs and faith in God and Scripture, Worthington (1989, p. 18) maintains that ôChristians are not immune to this crisis in commitment to marriage sweeping through contemporary society.ö This reality mandates the need for a theory of marriage and marital therapy that incorporate distinctly Christian concepts.
Pastoral counseling is uniquely suited to marital therapy, especially in light of increasing evidence that therapy that is rooted in spiritual doctrine is often more effective than conventional or secular practitioners in treating marital discord. As reported by Michael McManus (1996, p. 14), ôWithin the market for mental health services, a big shift toward religiously based counseling is currently taking placeùbecause it has been found that programs and practitioners that operate within a spiritual framework tend to be the most effective ones.ö With respect to Christian counseling, there are a number of different ap...